A power outage Monday at Van Vleck Hall forced the university to cancel classes in the building for the day.
Numerous buildings on campus experienced a power outage after a roof drain failed and water flooded the basement of Van Vleck.
Faramarz Vakili, associate director of UW-Madison's Physical Plant, said water dripped onto the transformer in Van Vleck and caused a chain reaction in a few buildings.
A transformer is an electrical unit that deduces high voltage electricity down to a level that can be used by the buildings.
When the transformer gets damaged, there is no way to use the power that is coming into the building,"" Vakili said.
The outage also caused irregular network problems in central campus areas.
Affected buildings included the Law Building, Music Hall, Chadbourne Hall, Lathrop Hall, Birge Hall, Sterling Hall and Van Vleck, Vakili said.
Van Vleck was the only building forced to close and cancel classes. All other buildings were back up and running by 6:30 a.m.
""Right now we are in the process of replacing the transformer,"" Vakili said. ""We hope to have it operational by tonight and open for classes [Tuesday].""
Van Vleck's power was restored Monday evening and will be open for work and classes Tuesday.
For information on future outages and repairs, visit UW-Madison's Division of Information Technology's help desk at http://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/index.php.
